Reality

. . . My little life, it is certain that I both did pray and attend Mass yesterday and did at sometime commit some sin or offense against God which I must do penance for, it is only a question left for an examination of conscience. There are no specific offenses to share but I must review my actions, my thoughts, my statements, my hesitations and ask if they are pleasing to God. I am again approaching confession for things said and left unsaid, for the content of my life lived to this moment, the hopes, dreams, prayers, and personal crises and disasters which influence my spiritual development.

. . . Sometimes I try not to talk too much, not to say too much for concern of saying the wrong thing which might encourage someone else to say or do the wrong thing. Humility and obedience do not welcome the spotlight for too much attention can lead to selfishness and badness.

I must accept that my life as a Christian requires that I honestly be prepared for all eventualities, and that nothing can undo the love and mercy of God. I am resolved to live a life of goodness and holiness and to consider myself a humble servant, and I desire the joy of prayer and reflection, but I am ready to examine my conscience and ask for God’s forgiveness. My life is not my life; my life is his life. I must make it pleasing for him.

In the midst of all this examination of conscience I somehow feel secure and blessed; how wonderful my life as a Christian is; God’s love and grace allows us to live through magnificent hours, when the Gospels and all of the prayers on an august significance.

There is something beautiful in longing for a simple life based upon the Gospel teachings of love and obedience.

Desire for Goodness

Each day I learn more about the Mother of the Church,—I am happy by praying the Hail Mary, and understanding her role and the beauty of her intercession on our behalf, which deepens in every detail my spirituality, my desire for goodness that I now feel.

My daily life as a Christian does contain some failures, but also I am learning the power and glory of prayer by observing men and women of divine energy, among whom I dare not yet count myself, but with whom I hope to become one day. The major thought of the day involves attending Mass and praying, but I attend Mass to find courage to deal with the unpredictable craziness of life; being in the Cathedral allows my mind a moment of quiet, a moment of calm when I may practice the goodness and holiness taught in the Gospels with the hope of extending the goodness and holiness into my life beyond these beautiful marble walls; Mass allows me to quietly listen to the Word of God.

I do understand and believe that I must always be concerned about my own moral and physical state, which is often under attack by the consumerism which dominates our society. True decency, true morality no longer are virtues of our society. Our society has become so permissive that goodness and holiness have been conquered by all types of vice and sin. The great sadness that I feel for those people who are confused by the chaos and the glamor of sin leads me to God and I pray for the souls of all men and women, those who believe in God and those who do not believe in God that they learn of his love and follow his teachings.

I do not completely isolate myself from the outside world as much as I wish, and I am sometimes affected, from the intellectual point of view. Besides, the atmosphere of the modern life is a confluence of hopes and ideas and intellectual and spiritual people seeking to define goodness, decency, and morality for this moment, this current time: the trouble is that the internet and media is constant moving and changing meanings and definitions from place to place, moment to moment and confidence often whithers before the perpetual uncertainty of polls.

Being Christian allows me to have a belief in the mercy and love of God; it also allows us to believe in and work for our salvation.

I am happy to hear about prelapsarian moments.

Devotion

A another thought about devotion to God, instead of modern compromise, it requires action and obedience. I had the joy of seeing many members of the parish kneel and pray during the liturgy of the Eucharist; I had the joy of hearing the prayers spoken by the priests; and yet, the expressions on some of the faces, expectant, anticipating, reverent, as the words “Body of Christ” were spoken which were both beautiful and inspiring. All of this happened in front of me. I had a feeling that I was unworthy.

It is the most delicate of hours; the love of God continues to flourish, but our deliverance will be guaranteed only by the price of our efforts when we feel and share our charity, humility, and obedience.

I wish my devotion was covered with flowers, and singing. My greatest consolation is that I understand the necessity of goodness and holiness; in small increments my life is changing to include them; being a humble servant of God is a complete way of life.It was a deep consolation to be together till the end.

It is fine of Jesus Christ to have saved this drowning disciple by providing the Beatittudes. We don't always realize and understand the reserve and beauty of heroism there is in being Christian, and among the young spiritual followers who believe in and understand the principles of fairness and social justice.

In regard to our Faith, I may tell you that daily prayer and weekly attendance are important. But what is in our hearts and souls are equally important. Please pray and strive to keep your hearts clean and pure.

As for my state of Faith, my devotion is increasing, my love of God does give me strength and hope, my desire is to be a patient, humble servant. Each day I learn a little more about obedience. As a Christian I must always understand that my duty is to love everyone as I love myself and to be a willing, loving, humble servant of God. I must always be ready to suffer and sacrifice in the name of God. I must always work to have a clean undefiled conscience and an enthusiastic spirit willing to offer praise and glory to God through all of the actions of my life.

Devotion, Compromises, Questions and Prayer

Since modern life is filled with so many compromises, this morning I began thinking of the dangers of a lukewarm devotion to God. As Christians we are called to live lives filled with love and to follow in the footsteps of Christ by proclaiming the Word of God by our actions and in our conversations. Although it is easy for us to affirm our belief during Mass, how difficult it is for us to do this in our daily lives. We are all capable of living lives that filled with humility, charity, and obedience. I sometimes wonder what does it mean to “bear witness” or to “proclaim” the Word of God. Should we pepper are sentences with, “I was the reading the Bible last night,” or “Scripture says,” or “In his homily Father Hamilton said.” There is no correct answer to the question; each situation in which we find ourselves as Christians will create a unique and appropriate response. Being a faithful Christian is already a daily struggle. The choices in our lives should reflect our love for and obedience to the teachings of God. Our lives should be filled with forgiveness, mercy, and goodness which will inspire hope in ourselves and others. Each day we should make decisions with the complete certainty that our actions and thoughts will be pleasing to God. Our lives should be filled with prayers for peace, love, salvation. We must remember to always praise God and to give him thanks. We should always be willing to share our happiness as faithful, servants of God.

Prayer is necessary, and, above all, prayer does have the power to change our lives and our ideas about our Faith and how we express our Faith.

We all have inspirational stories about meeting someone filled with such beautiful, inspirational goodness and holiness that there is always a sweet feeling in the heart when I think of them. I can only pray to grow into my faith in a similar way. My spiritual growth requires examples of all of God’s humble servants, presenting ways to be holy and good, ways to be the best Christian that I can.

. . . Goodness and holiness are patient, quiet

Questions about how we believe, why we believe should stir up fervent feelings within our hearts and souls. Christ is not dead; he is alive within each one of us. Our lives must reflect his love, sacrifice, and suffering; with courage our existence could adapt and be filled with charity, humility, and obedience.

I am now trying to be more vigilant in my life to avoid anything that will endanger the goodness, holiness and love in my life, but I understand the need to frequently examine my conscience. Goodness and holiness might occur naturally in each of us, but maintaining them requires diligence.

Lessons

The monotony of modern life annoys me sometimes, pleases me sometimes. Each day there are somethings to be rediscovered, an old anecdote retold, an old prayer to be taught. With patience and understanding there are many grave thoughts of sacrifice and obedience to be shared, discussed. I must always remember that I am a Christian. I must always be humble.

The ordinary good-fellowship of the Mass and of those moments when we are following the teachings of Christ and using our lives to serve God, we can experience a moment of a finer solidarity and goodness. One of the advantages of our situation is that we can, as it were, learn both goodness and holiness by observing and imitating it in others as we spend time doing God’s work. Charity, humility, and obedience require diligence and patience for our minds and our society encourage us to be independent individuals; when we reflect upon obedience, humility, and charity their usefulness can restore calm to our minds. I try to avoid getting caught in the madcap race of the immediate and instant gratification, instant resolution. Time is not the enemy; anxiety often is. Both goodness and wisdom require patience and silence. Our society allows and encourages us to be childish and selfish. As Christians we must remember that prayer can soothe our nerves, provide answers to the problems within our lives if we make time to pray and allow ourselves time to reflect, and to wait patiently for God’s guidance and assistance. Each of us are capable of making profound, inspirational statements about goodness, holiness, love, mercy, humility, obedience, charity, being Christian. Each of us has felt a moment of discomfort when we did not act appropriately with mercy, forgiveness and love; and yet, our hearts and souls still lead us toward God, still encourage us to be devoted disciples, believing in and living a life filled with love based upon the teachings of Jesus Christ.

A Glimpse of Eden

It was the intention of a modern artist, poet, photographer, essayist, with timid and sometimes turbulent reserves of youth lived within a prelapsarian world of natural forests, irregular hillsides, shallow yet swift brooks and streams leading to the deep and wide river. These were days of Bible verses and blue skies and fluffy white clouds and climbing trees and getting lost in the woods, and wishing that the sun would never go down and running around lost in some beautiful game of make-believe, running around laughing, laughing and hoping. How wonderful those moments were! Surrounding this time was a beautiful envelop of admonishments to be Christ-like, to be good. This instruction was delicate, gentle served with warm freshly baked cookies and glasses of milk. Here were examples of both Christ’s goodness and holiness to observe and to learn. This time was never lost, the power and the grace of those days continue to burn, to keep the darkness, emptiness, and loneliness of sin away. And life pulls us away and then pushes us into God. Those lessons from our youth will return to us as we try to translate current thoughts and concerns. Here lives and grows both the tenderness and gentleness of the heart and soul. Here is a fervent love for social justice and mercy! Here is a mystical sense of trust beyond the immediate and concrete. Here whispers the eternal language of love and salvation!

Each day I encounter hope and sadness, witness despair and kindness; urban living presents the human condition completely unvarnished without sentimentality or generosity. The pain and suffering of our neighbors is often displayed as if for the amusement and entertainment of others. My heart rejects this view but is sometimes overwhelmed by all that is seen and heard, but the fatigue I actually feel directs me to prayer.

Hushed

In the Cathedral just before Mass when there is that hushed silence, rushed quiet as people find seats, genuflect, and then pray that is a moment of great peace and great hope. And amid the pews beneath the murals and lights upon which hope and goodness within our hearts have traced the forms of prayers, I have felt, a gentleness and generosity, which recall Jesus Christ and the Beattitudes. Reverence is beautiful and inspiring to behold. How wonderful is this silent presence—I was not always aware of the beauty and serenity of being in the presence of God and observing the manner of mind and behavior that expresses itself in the faces and actions of the faithful—revisiting this place: the mind and soul are surely made to travel far abroad accompanied by humility, obedience, charity and love and inspire goodness and hope within the hearts and minds of all men, women, and children.